'Rock The South' Music Festival Founders Reveal Keys To Consistent Growth In An Overcrowded Market

Cole Swindell performs during Pepsi's Rock The South Festival in 2016. (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images.)

Almost a dozen country music festivals in the United States were canceled in 2016. More often than not, low ticket sales were to blame. From small, local festivals to huge Live Nation-backed productions, consumers watched one festival after another close its doors in 2016 amid increased competition in a near-saturated market.

So, what does it take for a music festival to thrive in a difficult environment? According to Nathan Baugh and Shane Quick, co-runners of the Cullman, Alabama-based festival Rock The South, it’s a mix of talent lineup, location, and over-delivering an experience to fans at an attainable price point. Some help from the municipality hosting the show doesn’t hurt, either.

Rock The South (which bills itself as “the biggest party in the south”) began in 2012 as a fundraising response to a series of deadly tornadoes in northern Alabama in 2011. “More than 10,000 people showed up the first year. We realized this market wanted this festival, so we put our heads together and figured out how to make it happen,” Quick says. Despite having only 13 weeks to “create the idea, book the talent and market it,” the duo booked Dierks Bentley to headline and drew a larger-than-anticipated crowd.

Five years later, the festival is now a two-day event that draws more than 25,000 people per day. “We’ve had ticket sales growth of more than 18% each year,” Baugh says. He reveals that keeping prices affordable is key to the festival’s success. “The average person can’t go spend $300 on a ticket plus travel and food. We are the lowest priced country music festival by 50%. We work hard to keep our margins low to help give something back to this community,” he says. (A portion of the proceeds from the festival are still donated to charities in and around Cullman.)

General admission tickets for 2017 cost $69, with “super fan” packages ranging from $109 (a reserved seat) to $1,400 (all-include food, alcohol, and a rocking chair to watch the show from).The lineup for this year’s festival is impressive for the cost of general admission: Luke Bryan and Sam Hunt will headline, with support from Brett Eldredge, Dustin Lynch, Maren Morris and a number of developing artists.

Quick says a sense of ownership from the community and Cullman’s position between Birmingham and Huntsville were keys to early success. “[Local radio stations] relentlessly made it their festival from the start. This is an area that’s very underserved, because previously [residents] had to drive to Nashville or Atlanta for an event of this size,” he says.

The festival has become a major tourism driver for the city. “June of 2016 [when Florida Georgia Line and Thomas Rhett headlined the fourth-annual event] was the highest tax month in the history of the City of Cullman,” Quick says. With a population of only 15,000, the influx of tens of thousands of tourists means big opportunities to boost the local economy. “Eighty-nine percent of [festival attendees] come from outside Cullman county,” Quick says. He credits an increase of the festival’s regional profile with the ability to draw more fans—and more sponsors, including Pepsi, Chevrolet and Anheuser-Busch.